Michael Tiernan taps his darker side

San Diego troubadour, a former seminary student at the Vatican, digs deep on his fifth and finest solo album, "Inside Your Head."

Armed with his guitar and a new album, San Diego singer-songwriter Michael Tiernan performs while being filmed for an episode of UT-TV's "Live from the Fourth Floor" music series. A video of him can be watched by scrolling to the link in the article below. Tiernan performs an album-release concert Sunday in Carlsbad. Photo by DAVID BROOKS / U-T SAN DIEGO; ZUMA Press.
— David Brooks

Armed with his guitar and a new album, San Diego singer-songwriter Michael Tiernan performs while being filmed for an episode of UT-TV's "Live from the Fourth Floor" music series. A video of him can be watched by scrolling to the link in the article below. Tiernan performs an album-release concert Sunday in Carlsbad. Photo by DAVID BROOKS / U-T SAN DIEGO; ZUMA Press.
— David Brooks

But on his fifth and most accomplished album, the 12-song “Inside Your Head,” the usually upbeat San Diego singer-songwriter and former seminary student also explores more gritty themes. Some of them are conveyed in the titles to such absorbing songs as “Dark Heart” and “Rage.” The result is the most musically and lyrically varied work of Tiernan’s career.

“I’m kind of known for (putting) a positive spin on everything, even if a song is about something difficult or sad,” said Tiernan, 41, a Vista resident.

“This album has that in some songs but (alternates) between a great, positive outlook and: ‘This sucks.’ I kind of let the darkness hang in there. It’s a more honest response. It was really important that someone who is going to sit down and listen to this album be taken on that journey, from the from the light morning of the day and then down into the depths, where it starts off light, gets dark and kind of leaves you hanging, in a little way.”

Tiernan will perform an album release concert Sunday at The Crossings at Carlsbad, where he’ll be joined by his band and fellow singer-songwriters Lee Coulter, Tolan Shaw and Dawn Mitschele.

“We’re turning the lawn where they have weddings into an outdoor concert venue,” said Tiernan, whose day job finds him doubling as a wedding singer and DJ.

Had his life taken a different turn, he might also be officiating at weddings. But after three years in seminary, Tiernan decided that being a musician was more appealing than being a man of the cloth.

“I was at the Vatican from 1998 to 2000,” he recalled.

“I was less than a year from having to take all my vows to become a priest and needed to rethink the whole thing; there were several things I was uncomfortable with and wasn’t sure I could commit to, so I took a break. I met my wife two weeks before I left Rome. She was traveling with a friend of mine, we hit it off, end of story — I never went back to seminary! I married her three years later.

“Right now, it seems like a completely different life, a different me. But those experiences (in seminary) really shaped who I am as a songwriter.”

Indeed, Tiernan arrived at the Vatican with his guitar in hand. This boded well for his music, if less so for his religious studies.

"My guitar got me in trouble a couple of times, especially in Rome," he recalled. "The rector didn’t like that I was playing in pubs. I was put on probation, which meant I had to sit in the front row at morning mass so that they knew I was there."

Did his Vatican sojourn inspire any songs?

"I've gotten a few songs out of that," he replied.

Such as?

" 'The Real Thing'; it’s on my first album," he offered. "The lyrics go: 'I want the real thing, give me the real thing,' not something plastic. It was a song about (people) trying to put Jesus in a box."